


A Half Day

by ElisaPhoenix



Series: Supreme Family Chaos [98]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Avengers Family, Celestial Peter Quill, Domestic Avengers, Domestic Fluff, Gen, M/M, Mama Bear Stephen Strange, Other, Protective Peter Quill, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark/Stephen Strange Parenting Peter Parker | Supremefamily | Strange Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-26
Updated: 2019-11-26
Packaged: 2021-02-25 03:48:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21570328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElisaPhoenix/pseuds/ElisaPhoenix
Summary: Stephen tried...he really did.
Relationships: Scott Lang/Peter Quill, Tony Stark/Stephen Strange
Series: Supreme Family Chaos [98]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1364899
Comments: 7
Kudos: 314





	A Half Day

It was probably a bad idea.

Okay, it was a _terrible_ idea.

But Stephen needed a day off. From everything. Sorcerer Supreme duties, parenting, being a doctor, being a housewife, being a husband (he was pretty sure he heard someone make the correction of 'wife' from the other side of the ocean)...and really...doing everything. By the Vishanti, he practically parented the Avengers too! They came to him for a lot of issues or to patch them up, he's stopped three attempted food fights this _month_ , and he had to stop Quill and Bucky from taking some of Harley and Peter's jokes seriously.

Like the one where Peter said he had to jump off the roof and Harley told him to do a flip.

Stephen was tired, and actually willing to risk leaving Valerie with her father (and everyone else) just so he could have more than an hour of peace. Tony was capable of raising a baby, but at the same time, half of their friends had been gone so no one bothered him. Now the tower was full again, plus Quill, and the god himself was part of the problem. With Valerie. Natasha was another part of it. Those two were constantly fighting over the baby--

Why was he thinking about this? Stephen did not remove his nanotech (with the knowledge that he would be getting an earful from Tony when he got home) and leave his phone behind just to spend his day off thinking about the chaos back home. Nope. He came to France for a quiet cup of tea that he could finish before it got cold and eat all the croissants he could stomach in one sitting. He even pulled out cash before coming so Tony couldn't track him if he used the card.

He did leave a note for his husband before he left early this morning (New York time), and simply wrote that he would be back soon. That was about two hours ago. A nice two hours of two cups of tea and probably about three or four croissants, and then he paid for his meal before walking around the streets of Paris. He took in the sights, breathed in the fresh air, and enjoyed the fact that he didn't have to grab his children's shirts to keep them from toppling over the bridge into the water below. Harley and Peter would have probably made a bet to see who could lean over furthest before falling or chickening out (Peter of course not allowed to use his spider grip), and Diana would either call them dummies or push one of them over.

With how much time she spent with Cassie, the boys still seemed to be rubbing off on her in all the worst ways. Then again, Cassie would do the same thing...maybe the young girl had a bigger part in raising Diana than Stephen initially thought. Maybe raising wasn't the right word though.

"I can't even go an hour without thinking about the kids." Stephen mumbles to himself.

Or anything else for that matter. He was having a hard time enjoying his peace when all he could think about was the doubtless disaster waiting for him at home already. He could visualize it now. Diana probably smuggled glitter into the tower and made more glitter bombs for Harley to shoot throughout the tower (and at Quill since Stephen was positive his oldest had a death wish), Peter with his webs, Tony and Tibbs down in the lab ignoring the disaster the kids and the team were creating, and Valerie was probably being pawned off between Avengers.

Athena was out of the overall equation since she was currently walking around Paris with him, and while they got some curious glances, they weren't bothered since the wolf stuck firmly to Stephen's side. She never ran off after stray animals or barked at other dogs that other people were out on walks with...she always waited for Stephen's permission and it still left him appalled. He only ever used magic to communicate with her the one time when she first came home with them, but she still ignored her instincts. Of course, if anyone or anything was a threat, that was an entirely different story. If Stephen was attacked, Athena would pounce without command. If there was a threat, she got defensive until Stephen commanded her.

Athena really was Stephen's.

"I guess a few hours for myself is better than nothing." Stephen muses aloud and looks down at the white wolf. "Might as well get the cubs souvenirs and get you some meat before we head home."

The sorcerer heads back toward the shops and commands Athena to stay outside while he goes into a butcher's shop, and after paying for the wolf's meal and asking the owner not to bother wrapping it, he carries it out by the paper it's sitting on. Stephen leans over to set it on the ground in front of Athena and quietly praises her for waiting patiently, and pets her head before leaving her to her lunch. She would remain in the spot by the bench while he went into a nearby cafe and ordered some crepes to go (for the kids), and also grabbed some coffee beans for Tony. A favorite of his that could only be found in France and that he had run out of a week ago.

Tony had been too absentminded to ask FRIDAY to order more coffee. He just moved on to the remains of other coffee beans he had sitting around. At least these would help pacify his husband's wrath to some degree. Tony had a billion and one reasons to worry about Stephen's and their children's safety...and even the rest of the team. The team acting as and being a family was spreading around the world (and some parts of the universe because of their battle with Thanos...and Quill's temper), and while some of the people with less than savory intentions thought twice and backed off, there were still a few morons.

Stephen buys the coffee and leaves the shop to return to Athena and he throws away the paper the meat had been sitting on into the nearest waste bin. He then motions for the wolf to follow as he slips out of sight to open a portal back home, and they barely step through when Harley snatches the bag of crepes as he runs past. Peter dashes after him, no doubt smelling the crepes, and they stumble into the kitchen where Dia and Cassie had been making something (thankfully glitter seemed to be absent) and they put it aside when Harley unloads the crepes for them.

Well the kids were easily taken care of with food, but how much of the disaster had the tower turned into in the few hours that Stephen had been gone? He looks around to assess the damage that had been done…

...but there was none.

It was as clean as he had left it that morning. The only thing different was that Tony was passed out on the couch with their youngest sleeping peacefully on his chest. Even while the engineer snored. The fact that the tower was clean _and_ his husband was sleeping made Stephen start to wonder if perhaps he accidentally stepped into the wrong dimension. A few inconspicuous spells only proved that he was in the right place and Stephen looked around the floor some more. Kids eating at the table, Tony and baby daughter sleeping on the couch, Tibbs curled up with Athena on the floor...wait. 

Some of the Avengers were sprawled out on the living room floor too. Quill was snoring (purring) on his back, and Scott was using his stomach as a pillow as he and Sam watched tv and Bucky threw popcorn at them from one of the couches. Steve sat next to the soldier drawing in a sketchbook, and Clint and Natasha were playing cards...how did Stephen miss them?

Probably because it wasn't the usual disaster. Everyone was quiet and everything was clean.

"Oh, hey Mama Bear. You're home a lot earlier than we expected." Sam says from his reclined position against one of Quill's bent legs.  
"I...was expecting a mess to clean up." Stephen admits.  
"Tony initiated the 'Mom Needs A Break' protocol." Bucky explains and the sorcerer blinks at him.  
"There's a protocol for that?"  
"You're married to him. You should know by now that there's a protocol for _everything_." Scott says. "There's even a protocol for when this guy goes berserk and I'm not home." He smacks the back of his hand against Quill's shoulder who doesn't even flinch and just keeps snoozing.  
"Beast Mode Protocol." Tony elaborates sleepily as he looks at his watch. "You're back early _tesoro_."  
Stephen sighs as he walks into the living room and retrieves his waking infant daughter off of the engineer. "All I did was think about the kids and the possible disaster I would come home to. I did enjoy two cups of _hot_ tea though." He drops the bag of coffee beans into Tony's lap when he sits up and the older man grins.  
"France? I'll pretend you didn't leave behind your tech and phone this time."   
"How compassionate." Stephen teases and steals a kiss after his husband stands up. "Where are you going?"  
"Down to the lab to make you tech that you can't remove. Come on furball." Tony heads over to the elevator as Tibbs unfurls himself from Athena's side and follows the billionaire into the elevator.  
"I remember a time when Tibbs was _my_ cat." Peter grumbles from the kitchen when the elevator doors close.

Stephen only smiles as he joins the kids in the kitchen and sets Valerie in her high chair. There was no heat behind Peter's words. Tibbs may spend time with Tony in the lab whenever he was down there, but he always slept in Peter's room every night. All of the cat's things were still in the teen's room, and he had originally belonged to Peter anyway. Tibbs just liked everyone. Their alpaca Gerald...and even Athena, a dangerous predator. He truly was a cat that didn't care.

"When's the last time your sister ate?" Stephen asks the kids, and Cassie was surprisingly the one who answered.  
"Bucky fed her some cereal about three hours ago."  
"I'm still convinced there's some of that in my arm!" The man calls from the living room.  
"Buck, just go down to the lab and ask Tony to take a look." Steve says with a chuckle.

Stephen grabs a jar of baby food from the cupboard as Bucky relents and disappears onto the elevator and the doctor sits in a chair in front of the high chair. The moment Stephen fed her a small spoonful of pureed apples and blueberries, she was eating it so fast that he barely pulled the spoon away from her mouth before she was opening it again for more. Valerie loved fruit and it was always the least messiest meal, unlike the attempt to feed her pureed green beans. She was always a quiet baby, but if anyone put green beans anywhere near her...she threw a fit. Quill had been the one to figure that out the hard way. Stephen had his hands full that day and the celestial offered to help feed Valerie, so the sorcerer gave him the jar of green beans to feed her. 

Stephen happened to watch that first spoonful disappear into Valerie's mouth, and then the look of pure betrayal appeared on her face. Betrayal because her Uncle Quill fed her that atrocious toxic waste and was trying to feed her a second spoonful. The god took a green bean shower that day, and Stephen made a mental note to keep green beans off the list of pureed vegetables to feed her.

Thankfully she liked everything else fed to her.

So far.

"Thanks for the crepes, Mom!" The boys jump up from their seats and toss the to go containers into the trash before they also disappear onto the elevator.  
"I remember a time when they liked to cuddle." Stephen sighs heavily as he feeds the last of the fruit to Valerie.   
"I could use some Mama Bear cuddles." Cassie says. "Papa Bear cuddles are great and all but his are more secure while yours are comforting."  
"Me too!" Diana chimes in. "I want Mama Bear cuddles in a pillow fort!"  
Stephen smirks. "You better get Uncle Quill to move then."  
"Pfft. That's easy." Diana waves her hand at her mother. "He's like you."  
"Like m--?" The doctor starts to ask until the little girl screams.

The sorcerer hears Scott and Sam squawk as the snoring suddenly stops, and he watches in mild amusement as Quill vaults over the couch closest to the kitchen. The celestial stumbles over to the girls and looks around for whatever is threatening Diana, and when he finds nothing, he narrows his eyes.

"What were you screaming for?"  
"We needed you to move so me and Cassie can build a pillow fort and cuddle with Mommy."  
Quill rubs his eyes. "You could have just asked."  
"Well that's no fun." Stephen says with a smirk.  
"Just for that, I'm sleeping in your bed." The celestial turns and makes his way up the stairs toward the master bedroom.  
The doctor laughs. "Go sleep in your own bed!"  
"Nope! Too late!" Quill disappears into the bedroom and Stephen looks at his daughter.  
"No more of that unless you're really in trouble."  
"I promise."  
"Good. Now go build a fort."


End file.
